History and Culture of Ukraine on the Pages of Periodicals of the Ukrainian Historical and Philological Society in Prague (in 1939-1945s)

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to reveal the scientific-historical and publishing activity of the Ukrainian Historical and Philological Society in Prague (hereinafter – UHPS) during the World War II, research into the topics of scientific periodicals and assess the contribution of Ukrainian emigrant historians to the development of history and culture of Ukraine. The research methodology is based on a combination of general scientific methods (problematic-chronological, retrospective, logical analysis, classification and systematization, generalization, comparison) with the principles of objectivity, historicism. The scientific novelty of the paper is that the historical scientific heritage of the members of the Ukrainian Historical and Philological Society in Prague during the Second World War (1939-1945) has been studied and analyzed in detail for the first time in the domestic historical science. Conclusions. During World War II, UHPS members, despite the difficulties of the turbulent times, continued their research work for the benefit of Ukrainian historical science. New representatives of the society, emigrants from Soviet Ukraine, actively joined the work and continued the traditions of the society of previous years. According to our estimates, 24 scientific papers were published, 51 speeches were made at the meetings of the society. The analysis of archival documents, papers of the emigrant historians of the Second World War convinces that their publishing activity was a significant contribution to the development of historical science and Ukrainian culture. Scientific novelty, debatability, originality of interpretations are inherent in the research of the members of the society on the issues of the history of Kyivan Rus, different periods of the Cossacks, the history of Ukraine in the XVIII and XIX centuries, etc. The issue of studying Ukrainian culture, auxiliary disciplines and archiving is interesting and promising nowadays. A large number of historians - scientists, members of the UHPS, wrote their works on the basis of foreign archives, which made it possible to deepen and open new pages of Ukrainian history or refute false allegations about Ukrainianness, which were widespread in the Russian Empire and on the territory of Soviet Ukraine.